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Senators players apologize after caught on camera in Uber criticizing coach, team's play

CTV Ottawa
Published Tuesday, November 6, 2018 12:48AM EST

Another off-ice incident involving the Ottawa Senators is causing a stir.

A video released by the Ottawa Citizen Monday shows Senators’ players in an Uber, criticizing one of their coaches and joking about the way the team is playing.

Players in the video include Matt Duchene, Chris Wideman, Thomas Chabot, Colin White, Chris Tierney, Dylan DeMelo and Alex Formenton. At multiple points, the players can be heard talking about assistant coach Martin Raymond, mocking his systems and his meetings.

The video was shot on October 29 in Phoenix, Arizona. The state only requires one side to consent to recording conversations, but it's not clear if any privacy laws have been breached by posting the video online.

The Senators organization responding Monday night to what it calls “privacy breach against its players and coaches.”

In a statement, the players apologized publicly to Raymond, their teammates and coaches for the comments.

“Our private conversation was recorded without our knowledge or consent,” they say.

“We’re passionate about our team, and focusing on growing together. We are grateful for the support of our fans and organization. This is an important learning experience, and we will do better.”

Head coach Guy Boucher also releasing a statement. It reads:

"Nothing is more important to us during this rebuild than making sure our players and coaches are fully committed to our plan, our values and our system of play. We have every confidence in Marty Raymond’s coaching; in the effort and determination of our team; and in the sincerity of our players’ apology. We are now treating this as a team matter, and will be making no further comment to the media.”

Uber also responded to the video Monday night. A spokesperson issued a statement, saying that his video is "a clear violation of our Community Guidelines."

"As soon as we learned of this situation, we immediately worked to help get this video removed."

The General Manager of Uber Canada tweeted about the video Monday night. Rob Khazzam says "filming or recording passengers without their consent is totally unacceptable and if reported/detected we will investigate..." It's not clear yet what consequences, if any, the Uber driver will face.

Filming or recording passengers without their consent is totally unacceptable and if reported / detected we will investigate + take action to preserve our communities privacy and integrity. In this specific case, we made efforts to have the video taken down.

I think we can safely say this teams chemistry to players and coaches and staff is crumbling under their own feet and it makes me sad and disappointed as a #senators fan that no one seems to resolve this but keeps it under their breaths until it all builds up and explodes ie 2018